Plymouth Marine set free while war crimes case appealed

A Camp Pendleton Marine and Plymouth native convicted in a major Iraqi war crimes case was released Monday and will remain free while his case is being reviewed after a military appeals court ruled he had an unfair trial. Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III has served four years in prison for the killing of a 52-year-old Iraqi man by his squad.

A Plymouth Marine convicted in a major Iraqi war crimes case will remain free while his case is being reviewed after a military appeals court ruled he had an unfair trial.

Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, 26, has served four years in prison for killing a 52-year-old Iraqi man.

“I’m going to be the best Marine I can be today,” an elated Hutchins said after being released Monday. “Today is really a surreal experience. I think we had a good judge. ... It’s hard to describe exactly what I’m feeling. I’m happy.”

The 2002 Plymouth South High School graduate was the first Marine to be convicted of a war-zone murder since the Iraq invasion began in 2003.

Hutchins’ defense attorney, Capt. Babu Kaza, argued that the married father of a 5-year-old girl is not a flight risk or a threat to society.

Hutchins said he called his family immediately afterward to tell them he will see them soon. He was preparing to call his daughter, Kylie, next.

“I’m going to tell her she’s my little princess, of course,” said Hutchins, who went to a Taco Bell outside Camp Pendleton after being released.

Monday’s decision by a military judge marked another major blow for the government’s prosecution of U.S. troops accused of killing unarmed Iraqis.

Attorneys for the government say Hutchins led a squad of eight who killed the man in the Iraqi village of Hamdania in 2006, and then planted a shovel and AK-47 to make it appear he was an insurgent.

Four Marines and a Navy corpsman pleaded to lesser sentences and testified against Hutchins and two others.

They said Hutchins was frustrated because insurgents around the rural Iraqi town kept getting held and released – so on April 26, 2006, he ordered them to take Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home, kill him and make it look like he was an insurgent planting a roadside bomb – apparently as a lesson to locals.

According to their testimony, Hutchins fired the final shots and said, “Gents, we just got away with murder.”

The U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals in Washington ruled Hutchins was not given a fair trial because his lead defense lawyer left the case shortly before his 2007 trial.

The Navy is appealing and the case is now in the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which can either affirm or overturn the Washington court’s ruling.

Hutchins says he was not with his squad at the time. He was initially sentenced to 14 years but that was later reduced to 11. The others in his squad served less than 18 months.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces is expected to hear arguments from both sides in the case this fall and could take until next year to make a decision.

Page 2 of 2 - Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Marine Corps Times last year that he believes Hutchins was the ringleader in the premeditated murder plot and attempted cover-up, and that he should complete the full sentence.

Hutchins said his squad told him they had killed an insurgent leader, and he did not learn of the mistake until after the investigation.

Hutchins told a Naval Clemency and Parole Board in January that he wants to live with his parents in Plymouth, and help them pay off their mortgage since they refinanced their home several times to cover his legal expenses.

He also said he suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and would like to help others suffering from PTSD.

“I am forever diminished by the death and violence I witnessed in Iraq, and forever consumed with regret over what I brought about with my hands,” Hutchins wrote to the board. “I do not find forgiveness as I lay in bed at night, nor would I accept it if it could somehow be offered. I am responsible for the loss of a human life on the night of April 26th, 2006.”